The 500 - #378 - (What's The Story) Morning Glory? - Oasis

I was inspired by a podcast called The 500 hosted by Los Angeles-based comedian Josh Adam Meyers. His goal, and mine, is to explore Rolling Stone Magazine's 2012 edition of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. 

Album # 378
Album Title: (What's The Story) Morning Glory?
Artist: Oasis
Genre: Rock, Brit Pop
Recorded: Rockfield Studios, Monmouth, Wales
Released: October, 1995
My age at release: 30
How familiar was I with it before this week: Very
Song I am putting on my Spotify: Champagne Supernova

Oasis exploded on the North American music scene during the spring and summer of 1996. My room-mates in Teachers' College were fans and this album was in regular rotation during the five months we spent together in our residence at Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, Ontario. If it wasn't playing on the communal stereo in the living room, it could be heard coming from one of the bedrooms on the second floor of our townhouse.

One of the few pictures I have of my roommates Craig (seated) and
Brendan in our townhouse. Also pictured, my other roommate Randy's dog Shaft.

At first, I wasn't a fan of the band. However, slowly but surely, the album won me over. My room-mate Brendan was teaching me guitar and together we worked on the song  Wonderwall from this record. I suppose my initial animus stemmed from a letter I had received 12 months earlier. More on that later, but first a little background on the band and this album.

One of the few pictures I have of me in Teacher's College.
Hard at work in my dorm room on my "state of the art" computer.

(What's The Story) Morning Glory? is the second studio release from Manchester, England, rock band Oasis. The five-piece band included Paul Arthurs on guitar, Tony McCarroll on drums, Paul McGuigan on bass. However, the band are best known because of the Gallagher brothers, Liam and Noel, who feuded publicly and courted controversy for more than 15 years.

The Gallagher Brothers Liam and Noel (with guitar)

The group formed in 1991 and were originally called The Rain. Their first release as Oasis, Definitely Maybe, was a commercial and critical success. McCarroll was fired from the band over creative and personal differences and replaced by Alan White, who would remain with them for the next four records.

Album Cover for Definitely Maybe

Following a financially successful, but perilously hedonistic world tour, the band returned to the studio to release (What's The Story) Morning Glory? in 1995. It was another stepping stone toward Oasis becoming one of the best selling groups of all time, with over 75 million records sold.

It was around this time that I learned of them. I had been corresponding with Scott, a friend from high school, who had moved to England to pursue his career in music. It was a time before email and the two of us were communicating through handwritten letters. 

When I last wrote, I had asked about the bands that were popular across the pond.  Scott told me about Blur, Elastica and Portishead, but it was a line about a band called Oasis that grabbed my attention. I found the letter a few months ago while cleaning my office and snapped a picture in anticipation of this post. 

It reads: "Oasis. Northern Mancunian shite. These boys rip off everybody and are infuriatingly arrogant to boot. Death would be too good for Liam Gallagher. Don't bother with this lot."

Please don't judge Scott too harshly. He was a talented singer-songwriter-guitarist and passionate about his own art. He also suffered from the curable condition of being a twenty- something. 

Scott's scathing review certainly coloured my opinion of the band as they became popular in Canada. At the start, I simply ignored them, choosing to listen to other artists. But, in Teachers' College, there was no escaping their sound and, eventually, I became a fan. Sure, they were arrogant -- but there was no denying their talent as musicians and songwriters.

Unfortunately, I have lost touch with all the people in this story - Scott, Craig, Randy and even Brendan, with whom I lived for another six months after Teachers' College. The old letter from Scott was a nice reminder of a past I had forgotten and I thought a lot about my old pals as I wrote this post. Friends who now seem like ghosts from a life someone else lived. 

Hearing (What's The Story) Morning Glory? in its entirety took me back too and I was particularly moved by this opening lyric from Don't Look Back In Anger:

"Slip inside the eye of your mind,
Don't you know you might find
A better place to play.
You said that you'd never been,
But all the things you've seen, 
Slowly fade away."